


Lost and found

by thiefofbluefire



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Implied Relationships, Platonic Relationships, Pre-Fall of Overwatch
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-16
Updated: 2018-02-16
Packaged: 2019-03-19 08:46:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13701003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thiefofbluefire/pseuds/thiefofbluefire
Summary: Better to light one small candle, than to curse the darkness.





	Lost and found

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Ecc0craft](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ecc0craft/gifts).



> Winston worked hard on the cronal accelerator, only for the worst kind of person to smash it.  
> Takes place after Doomfist's defeat.

Cold. Sore. Shaking. Hands.  
Sun. Bright.  
Dusty.  
Eyes. Pain.  
Gone.  
Gone. Gone. Gone.  
Tether. Accelerator. Broken.  
Sparks. Flicker.  
Gone.

Gone.

She's gone.

It's HIS fault.

Hate.  
Hate. Hate. Hate. Hate. Hate. Hate. Hate.  
Hot. Hot. Anger. Smash. Bite. Throw. Stomp.

Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill.

Kill him.

 

Stop... Please...

 

... Harold?

\-----

 

Winston squeezed the button on his Tesla canon and watched the sparks and beams flicker out onto the street. A lamp flickered nearby, and Winston sighed. Good, the field could reach that far without destruction of property. He grabbed the last car battery he had with his feet and started working on wiring it to his setup.

"Genji? Any changes?" Winston asked, rubbing the sweat and dust off his brow.

Genji winced at the question, a loose wire on his helmet made the visor flash on and off. It was painful, but not as painful as getting punched into a car at mach two had been.  
And even that didn't compare to the discomfort that twisted in his chest.

'She's here, master, but she fades'

"Udon can sense her," Genji replied. "But she's faint. Barely there."

He turned to the gorilla scientist, visor flaring irritably.

"Can you not work faster?"

"I'm working as fast as I can, Genji. Just... Just let me know if she moves." Winston muttered, distraught.

Genji huffed and turned to his dragon for any developments. The green beast undulated in mid air, staring at a particular spot in the air over a dented car door and a crack in the sidewalk. His breathing was coming out in deep wheezes, fear and a gradual state of panic was squeezing his delicate lungs.  
He should have been able to protect her. That's what partners do. She was his partner. They sparred together, ate together, ran together, got in trouble together. She's his partner. His friend. He should have looked out for her better.

'How disappointing, sparrow.'

Genji shook his head.

"Not now, Hanzo."

Winston completed the final circuit in the mechanism and pressed the button on his canon.  
The bolt of electricity shot out and scattered outwards in a large spread. It bounced off the pavement into bolts that looked like white trees. Further. Further.  
It was only for a fraction of a second, but Winston saw it.  
Saw the dark, exaggerated flicks of windblown hair on top of a petite torso.

"It's working! It's working I saw her!" Winston cried, turning the dial on the canon to increase the power.  
More bolts of electricity shot out, zigzagging around cars and debris. Tracer's outline showed up again around the same spot, and Winston and Genji saw her turn towards the static.

"Tracer? Tracer, can you hear me?!" Winston called out

 

Her ghostly form made a fearful expression before she blinked a few feet away, gripping her sides as though she was in pain.

"Lena-chan!" Genji shouted.

She perked her head up as a spark flashed from one of the batteries attached to the Tesla canon and the field shrank. The electric bolts darted inward, dangerously.

"Oh no," Winston cursed under his breath. "No no no nononono no NO!"

The device sparked and crackled. Tracer mouthed something that Genji couldn't quite read off her lips between his limited knowledge of the English language and his own panic at her distorting form.

"Lena-chan, take my hand!" Genji all but screamed as he reached out towards her inside the electric field.  
He saw her eyebrows shoot into her hairline before she disappeared for the second time that day.

"No no no no no.." Winston continued muttering as he tinkered with the wires of his canon and the batteries that he'd ripped out of the nearby cars.

"Winston-san," Genji breathed, barely able to get the words out in English. "What happened? WHAT HAPPENED!?"

The ape scientist spared him a long glance and readjusted his glasses, bent out of shape from the fight.  
"T-The... The field. I-it's it's not... It's n-not s-s-strong enough. We can use it to see her.... But...It.. It can't sustain her without hurting her."

"More power then," Genji wheezed. "More power, more batteries-"

"Genji," Winston interjected. "These are the only ones in a hundred foot radius that are still intact after the attack."

Genji clenched his fist.  
"The power lines then. We can rip them out-"

"That would cause more danger for US, Shimada!" Winston ground out, exasperated.

"Me then! Hook ME into the canon!"

"Absolutely not! Never say that again!" The gorilla slammed his palm onto the asphalt.

Genji held firm.  
"I can be repaired Winston-san! I can do it! My body generates electricity all the time! I can-"

Winston reared up on his back legs and grabbed the cyborg by the shoulders.

"YOU WILL DIE, GENJI!"

The words, paired with Winston's breaking voice, and a terrified expression from the gorilla gave Genji pause.

"You... You're already hurt Genji," Winston elaborated. "Damaged, and probably Losing power as we speak!"

As if to prove the scientist's point, Genji felt his right leg seize up and he all but collapsed into Winston's hands.  
He gingerly guided Genji to sit on the ground, trembling terribly.

"You wouldn't survive.." Winston added, his voice a quaking whisper.

"Chikushou," Genji hissed. He couldn't feel his legs on a good day. This was bad, but losing Tracer would be worse.

'Strong'

"Nani?" Genji looked up.  
Udon was still staring at the space on the road where they last saw her, waving his tail in the air like a snake in water.

'Spirit'

"Spirit?" Genji asked.

Winston scrunched up his nose.  
"What? Spirit?"

Genji looked between the dragon and the gorilla, frowning in confusion.  
"I-it's Udon... He's saying.... Strong spirit...?"

Winston followed Genji's gaze back to the asphalt.  
"Well.. Lena is rather spirited... Is that what he means?"

"I... I don't know..." The cyborg admitted. He looked at the green dragon, waiting for it to elaborate.

'need.... Strong.... Spirit....'

Oh how useful the enigmatic wisdom of the dragon could be.

Genji grunted, trying to think of another way to get her back; he hated having his hands basically tied. Winston let out a sigh and got back to tinkering with the Tesla canon.  
Lena was still there, if udon's posture was anything to go by. But to create a field strong enough to hold her, but not hurt her. It almost sounded impossible to Genji's ears.

Strong enough to hold, but not hurt.

 

'Spirit'

 

Impossible.

'never say impossible, sparrow.'

 

"Winston-san?" Genji asked, numb.

The gorilla turned to face him with a sullen expression.

"Didn't you say that Liao-san aided you with the initial trials for her device?"

 

\----

 

An ongoing gag around the headquarters was that Jack Morrison was a robot. A robot equipped with everything from super speed to laser vision. If there was any layer of truth to the rumor at all, then the holo-projector built into his desk would have had holes in it, given how long he'd been staring at it. He'd been waiting for a call from the ground team in Numbani since he received word that Akande "Doomfist" Ogundimu had been brought into custody.

"Bruised and bloody, barely alive," the report had said. Jack knit his brows together at the thought.  
Winston apparently had reduced the powerhouse of a man to a half-dead bag of broken bones in the Numbani ICU.  
But if Jack was being honest, that wasn't what had him gazing at the comm tab on his desktop. Frankly he wasn't concerned about Ogundimu and his health; that man could burn in hell for all the damage he'd done to an otherwise peaceful, nonviolent city that never crossed Overwatch.

What was worrying was that he hadn't heard a 'mission success' from the gorilla, or from Tracer. The ground team had gone into a disturbing radio silence not long after the mission officially started. Jack hadn't talked to any of them since.  
Which wasn't entirely surprising, considering the team comp.  
Jack knew that Winston preferred not to be distracted by a little voice in his headphones, and that the Shimada boy was always silent on missions; it came with being one of Reyes' troops, and from being an actual ninja.  
Tracer was being quiet though, and that wasn't like her.

The door to his office glided open after a ping noise signaled that someone was coming in.  
Jack glanced up from the desktop at his chief of security as he stiffly walked in. The gait didn't suit Liao, who was usually more laid back.  
Liao huffed when he met Jack's eyes.

"Still nothing from the ground team?" Liao asked.

Jack shook his head.  
"Anything happen from your end?"

Liao clicked his tongue, tilted his head to the right, and put a hand on his hip.  
"Nothing at my comm terminal, not Gabe's either. It's making the medics antsy." Liao frowned, making the laugh lines on his face droop. It aged him.  
"Doctors Zeigler, Klein and Verdant are packing up an Orca to go down there and check on the team themselves."

"Yeah, I noticed that," Jack said, scrunching his nose. Liao's field was setting the hairs on Jack's neck on edge. But Jack had a feeling that it wasn't because of the medical staff. "You don't disapprove?"

"They didn't take a healer with them for the op," the security chief deadpanned. "Remind me again why you let that fly?"

Jack shrugged. "It's a dive comp, Li. The combat ready medics we have aren't really equipped for a dive team; they're not fast enough to keep up with Tracer and Shimada."

"That just makes it more worrying," Liao muttered.  
There was a silence that stretched for a few minutes. Awkward, Liao paced between the window and Jack's desk, his personal electric field occasionally made the edges of the holographic desktop fizzle.

Jack was about to ask after Ana and her luck with the comms when a high pitched beep cut through the silence from the desktop. Jack had never hit the speaker button faster.  
There wasn't a visual, but Winston's voice came through clearly. Well, as clear as a phone line would allow.

"C-commander Morrison?"

"Winston, why didn't you call to report sooner?" Jack asked, straight to business.

"A-apologies sir," the ape scientist intoned, voice shaking. "Can... Can you call up chief Liao? I-I need to talk to him, it's important."

Jack frowned. Winston stuttered often enough, but this didn't sound normal. He sounded... shaken.

"I'm right here big guy," Liao answered without bite. "What's up?"

. "Talk to us Winston."

A beat passed and Jack heard Winston take a deep breath. He could easily imagine the gorilla adjusting his glasses as he did so. It was a tic of his which could've meant a lot of things.

"Doomfist is in custody, sirs. But... There's been a problem."

"Spill it Winston-san," another voice grunted through the channel.

Jack raised an eyebrow. He knew the voice.  
"Is that Shimada?"

"Genji, report." Liao said, stern, with another click of the tongue.

Winston cut back into the channel before Genji could respond.

"Sirs... It's Tracer. T-the c-cronal accelerator, Doomfist... D-destroyed it."

 

Jack felt himself go cold. He ran the words through his head again, and again, processing them, trying to think of a scenario where they were the truth. 

Tracer. The prodigy pilot that gave him hell about her rank. The mystery of time travel that it took a gorilla genius to crack. The little miracle girl that zipped around the base and into the teams hearts like nobody's business.

Little Lena Oxton.

Gone?

 

"Winston?" Liao prompted, face a mask of worry.

"She hasn't disappeared entirely though!" The gorilla continued. "She's still here in Numbani. I've been trying to create a static field for her to stabilize in, but she's running out of time here. I could really use your reave field. Commander, can you get him out here?"

Before Jack could confirm, Liao was bolting through the door out of his office with his trained feet thumping loudly up the hall. As if Jack's lack of permission would have stopped him.

"I'll send him with the medical relief team, just hang on Winston." 

"Please hurry."

 

\-----

 

It was basically night time when the relief team touched down in Numbani. Deathly quiet too, without the usual buzz that would come with a city like it. Personally, Liao was bothered by it. Having grown up on the streets of Hong Kong, he knew that noise meant life, and that this kind of silence wasn't any reassurance that anything was alright.  
Mercy's heels clacked against the asphalt next to him. Beside her was Klein, the cyberneticist that Gabe had picked up some time back with literal nerves of steel. On his other side, Verdant. A prodigy in his own right with a temper that could match his blackwatch commander, and Torb.  
Liao had met a lot of hardened soldiers, and criminals that were tougher than nails, but these medics were some of the hardest people to shake that he'd ever seen.

All of them looked like they were witnessing something that would haunt them later.  
Guess they hated the silence too.

Liao clicked open a radar scan for friendlies on his visor. His eyes darted frantically around the map that he was given until two blips appeared. They were closer to the museum than they were to the extraction point. Liao clenched his fist around the suitcase he'd snagged from Winston's lab, and relayed the location to the medics.

Angela and Klein berated him about the team's status as well as the commander's communication while Verdant drew his pistol and ran ahead, checking corners with a paranoid level of thoroughness. Liao half answered questions about what Winston had told him and Jack, made guesses about Winston and his gene therapy, and actively avoided any questions about Tracer. Verdant made a remark about a car that was sliced in half to Klein, but Liao barely caught it.

Something about it possibly being a strain on Genji "dumbass" Shimada's arms.

The friendly signatures were moving closer to the museum, and Liao spent the better part of five minutes thinking of adequate reasons for why. He felt the remnants of an aborted electricity field when he got close to a street lamp, making a mental note about it when the light flickered.  
Mercy sidestepped a car battery and gave it a look before her HUD finally picked up on the friendly signatures. She recognized Winston's ID as stable, which she breathed easier knowing about, but she began to pick up the pace when she saw the bright red word CRITICAL over Genji's.  
Verdant cursed loudly when his HUD picked up on the signatures as well.  
And Klein, well, knowing him, he was absolutely seething at the confirmation that Shimada was in critical condition and still moving around. But he'd never say anything out loud.  
Liao took the lead around the bend and under the overhang in front of the museum and broke out into a run, Mercy tailing close behind him with her wings. When they finally confirmed visual with the gorilla and the ninja, Angela flew to Genji's side to assess his exact condition, sighing incredulously when she knelt down by him.

"Mein got, Genji what happened?" She asked as she connected the beam of her staff to him. He swiveled his head to look at her and muttered in a breathy voice.

"Oxton-chan started to move. We.. we couldn't let her go."

"Die nerves are fried Klein! Und he's losing power!" Mercy called as Dr. Klein trotted to her side, opening a life-support kit that he had been carrying.  
While the two of them were hooking Genji up to the emergency power cords, Liao and Verdant pulled Winston aside from his equipment, which was a sparking mess or wires and battery fluid.

"No no no! Wait! Lena!" The gorilla protested as Verdant shoved what was left of the Tesla canon away with his boot.

"You got all kinds of grease and battery acid all over your hands, smart ass! Let me fix it!" The medic growled as he yanked a series of disinfectant wipes out of the packs on his belt. Winston hissed at the contact as Verdant began to furiously scrub the gunk away with extreme prejudice.

Liao kicked the device even further away when Winston tried to reach around the medic for it. The gorilla gave a moment to pause and his eyes widened when Liao was in his center focus.

"Chief!" Winston gasped.

Liao held up the case he brought.

"I have the spare accelerator, Winston. Now where's Tracer?"

"Spare accelerator?" Liao heard Mercy gasp behind him.

"Bollocks," Klein added.

Winston fumbled for a moment before he took a breath.  
"Sh-she's right here, or at least.. she's somewhere around here.. Genji?"

Liao turned to face the ninja and clicked his tongue.

"Udon seems to think that she's on the stairs, there!" Genji pointed to the stairs in question that lead up into the museum before his arm suddenly went limp.  
Mercy and Klein kept the cyborg still and continued hooking cables into him to stabilize his failing body. Liao nodded and turned to face the museum doors.

"Everyone stay here," the chief ordered as he marched to the area of disassociation.  
Liao clicked open the case and pulled out the emergency harness. He turned it over in his hands and closed his eyes as he tossed the casing for it aside.

 

He inhaled deeply through his mouth, held it for a second, and let it out through his nose.

In, hold, out.

In hold, out.

In. Hold. Out.

The world was dark.  
Tiny. Flickering. Frail.  
But she was there.

In. The pulse in his spine.

He remembered the way she bounced about when she was excited. The way her cheeks flushed when she was happy. The freckles on her nose. Her friendly smile, and her outrageous haircut.

Hold. Static in his hair

He could see her light. Hanging on the edge of reality as it was. But she was still bright enough to stay.

Out. Light in his hands, and behind his eyelids.

He saw her turn to look his way.

Let go.

Liao opened his eyes and almost immediately was engulfed in a thundering, electric blue haze. The lights around and inside the museum started flicking on and off on their own. What was left of Winston's Tesla canon sparked to life and started sending bolts of electricity into a radius around the security chief.  
Mercy gasped and scooted away from the field with her arms wrapped tightly around Genji. Klein shielded the power module with a flexible sheet of fabric that blocked electric currents, but not before blinking in awe. Verdant tenderly pushed Winston away from the field with a grunt and stood at attention, ready for anything.

This wasn't the first time that Liao had used his reave field like this. Nor was it the first time that anyone had seen him focus his chi like this in public. Hell, it wasn't even the first time that he'd made this static field for the sake of saving one Lena Oxton.

That being said, it wasn't any less important this time.

Liao slowly stretched his arms out, posture open, face earnest. His hair swayed with a non-existent wind, and his eyes were trained on a spot on the stairs. He focused on the light in the dark place that he saw. On that faintly beating heart that held the attention of others and never let go without a promise to see them again.  
He focused on its frequency, and matched his own pulse to it.

In.  
Hold.  
Out.

"Tracer," Liao called softly. "Lena..."

Come home.

It was slight. Barely there. A blink. A change. The sensation of heat. Of touch. But he felt it.

The feeling of arms wrapping around his torso.

Quickly, Liao flipped the switch on the accelerator with his thumb and held it above his chest. It glowed to life and took a scan of the area in question. It beeped twice before it projected a white light in the air, and she flashed transparently.

Got her.

Liao tightened the radius of the reave field, and the sensation of arms around him grew more prevalent. Her petite form also became more visible as the field shrank.  
Winston covered his mouth to stifle a gasp as he could begin to make out the shape of Tracer's hair poking over Liao's shoulder.  
Slowly, as the field grew smaller and smaller, Liao brought his arms around her shoulders.

"Hold still, Ace," Liao murmured. "You're almost here, almost."

"Chief!" She sobbed into his neck as he gently buckled the new cronal accelerator around her waist. It whirred with blue light when it was secure and Liao pressed his palms into her back.

"Tracer," he whispered into her ear. "I'm going to stop the field now, alright?"

At first, she wailed into his shoulder and her grip on his coat grew tighter.

"Don't let me go!" came her muffled cries. "Don't let me go back into the dark!"

Liao hushed her and rubbed her back, leaving a trail of sparks.

"Tracer, Tracer, it's okay. I'm not going to let you go. I'm not going to let go. You don't have to go back. You're not going to go back. It's okay."

Tracer wept louder into his collar.

"Tracer, listen to me," the chief continued. "Tracer, I'm going to stop the field and you're gonna feel a shock and it's gonna sting but you're gonna be alright. I just need you to trust me on this okay? Okay?"

She sobbed hard but he felt her head rise and fall in understanding.

"Okay," he breathed. "Okay on three."

Tracer hiccuped and nodded as Liao took a deep breath.

"One."

The bolts on the edge of the field were within touching distance.

"Two."

Tracer's hair swayed into his face as she pressed harder into his torso.

"Three!"

They both braced for it.

Let go.

The field bloomed inversely and light flashed orange and white as it dissipated.  
With a sharp cry, Tracer flung all of her weight onto Liao, who wobbled awkwardly under the sudden change in center of gravity. He stepped back to compensate for the change, but fell back onto the pavement with a grunt.  
Mercy sprung upwards and ran towards them in the unlit streets.  
Verdant pulled his emergency station off of his back and activated the floodlamp, shining it over their prone forms before Angela could overstep and accidentally trip over them.  
She knelt down and touched Tracer's arm. The girl flinched at the touch and Liao let out a long groan as he tried to regain his breath.

"Tracer?" Mercy asked tentatively, stroking her back as Liao let his arms fall away from the pilot on top of him.  
"Lena, can you hear me?"

Tracer let out a sniffle and slowly turned her head to peer up at Angela. Her eyes were red and puffy, but she looked at Mercy with recognition.

"Angie?" She asked, voice breaking.

"Oh Lena!" Mercy gasped as she leaned over and worked to pry Tracer's hands off of Liao. He grunted in thanks as Angela gently began prodding for her pulse and blood pressure.

"Are you hurt? Anything broken?"

"T-T-teeth chattering..." Tracer stuttered, wiping her face. She looked around, sniffling.

"Lena, if something is wrong, tell me bitte?" Angela cooed.

Tracer nodded gingerly, still scrutinizing the area. Eventually her eyes landed on Winston, who was quite desperately trying not to break down into a sobbing fit by rubbing his fingers against his thumbs. Verdant smacked his palm on Winston's jump pack and then gestured at tracer with his head.  
Winston meekly met her gaze with his eyebrows drawn together.

"Did we win?" Tracer squawked.

Winston let himself smile, albeit sheepishly. He readjusted his glasses and took a breath. When he righted himself, he gave her a firm nod.

"Yeah. Yeah we got him."

Tracer choked out another sob and cupped her hands over her face. Angela touched her shoulders, and pulled her into a hug, smiling softly.

Klein cleared his throat to call the others attention. He thumbed the edge of his lip irritably, itching for a smoke that would no doubt be inappropriate for the occasion.

"Not that this isn't wonderful and all," the cyberneticist began. "But some of you are worse for wear than others, and I do believe that we best be heading back to headquarters." He pointed to Genji as he spoke, and then spun his finger in a circle next to his head.  
"And soon, please? It's already late and I have a metal spine to disassemble."

"Urusee, don't ruin the moment, Dr. Frankenstein." Genji grunted, relieved smile hidden behind his mask.

"He's right though," Verdant muttered. "Let's get back and tell the Commanders the good news."

"I think you mean," Liao interjected from his spot on the ground. "Let's go home and send Tracer to her room because she was out late and you are in big trouble, young lady!"

The medical team scowled at Liao as Tracer barked out a laugh.

 

\----

 

It was Jack's turn to pace impatiently in his office. The medical relief team had gone in hours ago and he hadn't heard anything back from them. Worse still, Petras was on hold on line three, waiting for a report on the Numbani mission. And Jack didn't know what to tell him that the director didn't already know.  
He worried his lip and quietly prayed and hoped that Liao had gotten there in time.

The second comm line on his desk sounded and Jack only glanced at it. He saw Liao's photo on the ID, and he leaped for the answer button.

. "Morrison here, how'd it go, Li?" Jack asked, voice on the edge of wavering, but the either the phone didn't pick up that level of subtlety or Liao didn't care to notice.

"Sir," the security chief began. "All assets retrieved, returning to HQ."

"I'm okay, commander!" Tracer's voice chimed in.

 

And when Jack shouted 'Yes!' with his fist hooked in the air, it could be heard all the way from Ana's office.


End file.
